After a few weeks of work, John felt that his manager, Mr Tan always assigns menial tasks such as sweeping the floor or photocopying documents to his division and not to others. He felt that these kinds of jobs are tedious and beneath him. While his colleagues were also unhappy with the situation, none of them showed any interest in expressing their dissatisfaction to Mr Tan.John decided to stand up for the group. So, he went up to Mr Tan and explained that everyone in the division felt that they were always unfairly given the most tedious chores. However, Mr Tan rudely said, “Get back to work”.
Enraged, John decided to complain directly to the human resource (HR) department. John subsequently won the case against Mr Tan, and Mr Tan was called down for it. John’s division was then no longer given such menial tasks and John was regarded as a sort of “hero” amongst his colleagues. However, John soon noticed that everything that required Mr Tan’s authorization, such as his leave application either took a long time to be approved or was ignored altogether.
John decided to complain to the HR department again. However, when the HR department tried to confirm his story with his colleagues, none of them backed him up.After enduring the poor work environment for a few months, John eventually decided to leave the company.
There are many factors affecting this workplace conflict scenario and we can consider some of the following questions:
How could John have done better in this conflict?
Should he have simply endured those tedious tasks?
Was workplace politics the only factor that caused his downfall?
Should he have known something was wrong when his colleagues didn’t dare confront Mr Tan?
Dear Russell,
ReplyDeleteYour story is very interesting as it is something which I read in the newspaper a few years ago about interns complaining about their workplace.
In my opinion, John should endured the tedious task at first. My justification precedes below.
As an intern, you have not proven yourself to be a good worker. As a manager, you'll always delegate the important task to who you trust most(those who worked in the company long enough). Being fresh in the company, it is common that you delegate the more basic task to juniors. After you see his potential, then you, as a manager will be more confident in giving the task to him.
Workplace politics is a strong factor to John's downfall, however this is not the only factor. I believe John is being pushy. Just a few weeks of work and he's complaining about his work. Instead, he should persevere and show excellent quality in his work and just have to wait for the opportunity to come.
I believe this scenario is experienced by several fresh graduates and it is a good topic of discussion here.
Regards,
Mohd Ferrino
Hey Russell,
ReplyDeleteYou made up quite a complex scenario. Kudos to you!
As Ferrino said, it is understandable that Mr Tan delegated important work to his trusted employees and gave John unimportant work because he was new. However, I disagree with Ferrino in that John should not have complained so early into work. Whether it is an internship or full-time work, the worker holds the right to stand up against the employer if he is given job outside his job scope, be it too low or too much for him.
In this case, John did the correct thing by complaining to the HR department on both occasions. It is quite evident that Mr Tan would not reason with John and was being unfair to him. However, John could have done better by talking to his colleagues and persuading them to complain along with him. If they didn’t agree to that, he should have at least taken some colleagues in confidence to back him up in case the management asked them about it.
In the end, I think that John’s decision to quit was largely justified. It is true that one must have some level of tolerance, but there is no point working in a stifling environment; where one finds himself being ill-treated by others.
I’m sure that there would be many other employers looking for an intelligent person with such strong beliefs. John deserves better!
Anuj
Dear Russell,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this interesting story, hopefully we won’t encounter such problem when we graduate.
I agree with what Eno and Anuj have said and I think both John and Mr. Tan’s responses are understandable. As for Mr. Tan, it takes time for him to know his new staff before he can trust them and delegate important work to them. And John, being a fresh graduate and a new employee, it is common that he is very eager to seek chances to display his talents.
But I do feel that John could have done better. The reason why Mr. Tan was a bit rude the first time John talked to him could be Mr. Tan wanted to test his subordinates or simply because he was not in a good mood. John needn’t be so impatient and straightaway reported to the HR department; instead he could try carrying out more conversations with Mr. Tan later on. I suggest that Mr. Tan must have some valid reasons for assigning menial tasks to John’s division; otherwise he should not be in the managerial position of such a large and reputable company. Through better communication, they can understand each other better and the problem may be solve in the meantime.
Let’s say eventually it appeared that Mr. Tan was really not a qualified manager, John could still take more effective measures to deal with the problem compared to what he has done. Suppose you were the HR department person, who would you trust, a new employee or his supervisor? If a new employee with barely any contribution to the company continuously complains about his supervisor for some baseless reasons or without a valid support, what would you think? So it seems John is setting himself up here. If he really wants to stay in this company and say, take down Mr. Tan, he should at least use some strategies. In this sense, workplace politics is one of the major factors that caused his downfall.
In any case, there is never too much experience for a fresh graduate to gain from his/her first job. John could simply treat what he had encountered as experience gaining process. I wonder if John had been more patient and modest and had made proper use of communication skills—hopefully he has taken CG1413 before—would the story still have had the same unpleasant ending.
Regards,
Shiyan
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteHere’s what I think John should have done.
When you are the newest member of the company, you are essentially fodder for the higher ups. Your words do not have as much weight as the others because you have not really proven your worth. Therefore, John should have not made such a big fuss over his division being allocated menial tasks.
John should have talked to Mr. Tan about his feelings about the unfair work division, but he shouldn’t have just gone up to the HR department directly when he was brushed away. Obviously, Mr. Tan would not be pleased about being called down and is very likely to take his anger out on John. He should continue to express his and his colleagues’ unhappiness at appropriate times to Mr. Tan.
Also, workplace politics is at play here. After Mr. Tan was called down, John was hailed as a “hero” by his colleagues. However, when he needed their support, none of them gave it to him. John’s colleagues were just making use of John naivety to get what they want: to not be assigned any more menial tasks. Personally, I think part of John’s poor decision was due to influence by his colleagues.
Overall, I think everyone has made really good comments about the scenario.
Regards,
Russell